Sports Medicine
Sports Medicine is a first season episode of House which first aired on February 22, 2005. Recap While demonstrating his pitches for a commercial, a baseball pitcher who is coming back from drug abuse feels his arm break while he goes through his pitching motion. The pitcher is taken to Princeton-Plainsboro where they discover that he is suffering osteopinia, a weakening of the bone. House guesses when Wilson tells him about the case that the patient is young as that disorder is common in older men. House then finds out that it is a famous baseball player. Foreman is with his new girlfriend, who has left behind her panties for him. The team starts the differential. They discuss cancer, but the tests for it are negative. House thinks it is his kidneys but Cameron believes House only thinks that so they can treat him. The pitcher has been gaining weight, so they believe it might be steroids. House knows that Foreman was lying about why he was late (he said he had car trouble). Chase goes to the patient for a urine sample. The patient is used to them and thinks it might be a drug test. The pitcher's wife said he gained the weight normally. While they test the urine, Foreman asks Cameron to cover for him. He makes up a reason. Meanwhile, House is trying to get out of the clinic. He starts diagnosing all the patients in the waiting room. He finishes in about a minute. The steroid tests are negative, but he shows elevated proteins that could indicate cancer. However, the cancer tests are negative too. House thinks that he's using a steroid that can't be detected. He goes to the patient and notices his testicles are undersized, another symptom of steroid use. He gives him medicine to treat the steroids. Cuddy challenges him. She notes the medicine will give him respiratory problems he hasn't been using steroids. House admits that if it isn't steroids, he doesn't know what it is, and if he does suffer respiratory problems, he will know he's on the wrong track. The treatment shows its not steroids or cancer. They start looking at his symptoms again. Discounting the kidney problems, Chase says that Addison's disease accounts for all the other symptoms. However, the treatment for Addison's is steroids, which will destroy his kidneys. House speaks to the patient about his steroid use, and the patient denies using them. House points out if he's lying, they can't treat him for Addison's. The patient finally admits that his coach put him on drugs five years before. He doesn't know what it was, but he gained muscle weight. Meanwhile, House has scored two all access Monster Truck tickets and is taking Wilson, but he can't make it on Friday night because he's previously booked. House says he will ask another friend, but Wilson is mystified about who it might be. The pitcher needs a kidney transplant. The wife volunteers, but is pregnant and can't undergo the procedure. The situation is complicated by the fact she hasn't told her husband she's pregnant. She agrees to have an abortion. The husband is dead set against the transplant if it means an abortion. House asks Cameron to the Monster Truck show, as long as it is not a date. However, he finds out Wilson made up an excuse to miss the show. The patient goes into distress as his potassium levels rise. This rules out Addison's or steroids. His heart rate keeps rising. He's no longer stable enough for a transplant. Then his heart rate drops to 40 and House has no idea why. They discuss how they've treated him, and House rules the treatment drugs out as a reason why his heart rate is changing. The patient then starts having hallucinations. House goes to speak to the patient's coach. He notices the coach has clubbing in his fingers from a heart problem. The coach takes digitalis for the heart problem, and House figures out that the patient stole the pills to try to kill himself - that's what is causing the hallucinations. House talks to the patient. He still wants his wife to have the baby even if it means he will die. House agrees to treat the Addison's, but warns the patient his kidneys will probably fail. House notes that the patient accidentally urinated on him. He also calls out Wilson about why he really can't go out with him Friday night. Wilson admits he is going to dinner with Stacy. He thought House couldn't handle it. He asks Wilson to say hello for him. The wife tells House she wants the abortion, but House dissuades her. House tells her that her husband will probably die, but the patient wants her to keep the baby. However, House notes that the wife can't smell the urine on his pants. The team discusses why House asked Cameron to go to the Monster Truck show. House finds the team and sends away Foreman's girlfriend on the theory that he knows she is sleeping with one of them. He figures out it is Foreman. He then tells the team that the wife's inability to smell must indicate cadmium poisoning. However, they can't find out what the source is. However, Chase figures out what the source is - cadmium laced marijuana. The pitcher and wife have both been using it, but the patient is still a heavy user. House admits that he falsified the patient's records to keep him from being suspended from baseball. Cameron enjoys the Monster Truck show. She asks House if he's ever been married. He tells her he lived with someone. Major Events * House gets two tickets to the biggest Monster Truck show in New Jersey. * Wilson is offered one of the tickets but pulls out, claiming he's speaking at the Oncology Dinner but it is revealed that he's meeting Stacy Warner, House's ex-girlfriend. * House and Cameron attend the Monster Truck rally together